A Study of Locality in Hong Kong Contemporary Literature

This thesis investigates the narratives of Hong Kong locality by Wong Bik-wan (黃碧雲) and Dung Kai-cheung (董啟章), two prominent Hong Kong writers whose fiction is set in a Hong Kong local social and historical background. Since the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration (Joint Declaration) in 1984, resentment against the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been growing among Hong Kong intellectuals. To Wong and Dung, the Joint Declaration merely marked a transfer of Hong Kong from the British Empire to the control of another hegemonic power, the PRC. They preferred to see Hong Kong included in the political discussion of the sovereign transfer as an autonomous entity. The absence of such a consultation process, in their view, would result in drastic social turmoil after the formal handover in 1997. Such an understanding gradually gained popularity in Hong Kong. This thesis takes their fictional works as cultural products constructing this political ideal. Their writings expressed a dystopic image in which the vibrant and diverse society of Hong Kong during the colonial era would be assimilated by the PRC’s governance. Such a dystopic vision of the post-1997 Hong Kong society is subtly brought forward by forging Hong Kong locality in their works. The locality of Hong Kong in Wong and Dung’s writings should be read in the context of such widespread intellectual anxiety. By cross-reading Wong and Dung’s narratives on locality with archival materials, the thesis argues that the locality they constructed is rooted in their nostalgia, elitism, and resentment, and represents a small fraction of the life of the general public in Hong Kong. The working classes, in this case, are largely silenced. The thesis contributes to the study of locality in Hong Kong contemporary literature by illustrating the complexity of its social construction. It also demonstrates the conditionality of the locality constituted by Wong and Dung. By contextualising both writers’ works and their acclaimed representation of Hong Kong locality in the post-1990s era, this thesis intends to showcase the limits of the literary imagination they created. Ultimately, this thesis suggests that such narratives of locality should be seen as products of colonisation rather than decolonisation.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Jiahao Fei (21041645)

• Wong Bik-wan
• Dung Kai-cheung
• Fiction
• Hong Kong
• Locality
• Nostalgia
• Elitism
• Resentment

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-07-14

Identifier

10779/exe.31062766.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/31062766